All Blogs
South India Copyright Workshop
A workshop on Copyright was organized by CIS-A2K at Hotel Bhagini Icon in Bengaluru from 19th to 21st October 2018. Seventeen members from 5 language communities (Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Tulu) participated in the workshop. Yann Forget was the master trainer for the workshop.
377 Bites the Dust: Unpacking the long and winding road to the judicial decriminalization of homosexuality in India
An informal case comment tracing the journey and assessing the societal implications the recent 377 (Navtej Johar v Union of India).
Why Data Localisation Might Lead To Unchecked Surveillance
In recent times, there has been a rash of policies and regulations that propose that the data that Indian entities handle be physically stored on servers in India, in some cases exclusively. In other cases, only a copy needs to be stored.
Comments to The Personal Data Protection Bill
CIS has conducted extensive research into the areas privacy, data protection, data security, and was also a member of the Committee of Experts constituted under Justice A P Shah. CIS has also been cited multiple times in the Report of the Committee of Experts led by Justice Srikrishna. CIS values the fundamental principles of justice, equality, freedom and economic development. This submission is consistent with CIS’ commitment to these values, the safeguarding of general public interest and the protection of individuals’ right to privacy and data protection. Accordingly, the comments in this submission aim to further these principles. We welcome the opportunity provided to our comments on the Bill and we hope that the final Bill will consider the interests of all the stakeholders to ensure a Bill that protects the privacy of the individual while encouraging a free and fair economy.
Call for Position - Programme Officer (Communication) - Access to Knowledge
We are inviting applications for the position of a Programme Officer (Communication) to join the Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team at the Centre for Internet and Society. Please find below the description of the position, the eligibility criteria, and the application process.
Internet Researchers' Conference 2019 (IRC19): List - Call for Sessions
Who makes lists? How are lists made? Who can be on a list, and who is missing? What new subjectivities - indicative of different asymmetries of power/knowledge - do list-making, and being listed, engender? What makes lists legitimate information artifacts, and what makes their knowledge contentious? Much debate has emerged about specificities and implications of the list as an information artifact, especially in the case of #LoSHA and NRC - its role in creation and curation of information, in building solidarities and communities of practice, its dependencies on networked media infrastructures, its deployment by hegemonic entities and in turn for countering dominant discourses. For the fourth edition of the Internet Researchers’ Conference (IRC19), we invite sessions that engage critically with the form, imagination, and politics of the *list*.
Digital Native: Hardly Friends Like That
Individual effort is far from enough to fool Facebook’s grouping algorithm.
Cross-Border Data Sharing and India: A study in Processes, Content and Capacity
A majority of criminal investigations in the modern era necessitate law enforcement access to electronic evidence stored extra-territorially. The conventional methods of compelling the presentation of evidence available for investigative agencies often fail when the evidence is not present within the territorial boundaries of the state.
A trust deficit between advertisers and publishers is leading to fake news
Transparency regulations is need of the hour. And urgently for election and political advertising. What do the ads look like? Who paid for them? Who was the target? How many people saw these advertisements? How many times? Transparency around viral content is also required.
The Right Words for Love
Queer love is legal. Which means that all of us are finally free to find a language that can match our desires.
Christ (DU) students enrolls for 3rd Wikipedia certificate course
Students of Christ (Deemed to be University) enrolled themselves for the third Wikipedia certificate course for the academic year of 2018-19, to understand the usage of Wikimedia projects.
Wikisource Handbook for Indian Communities
Wikisource is one of the trending Wikimedia projects. Many new editors and new books to Indic language Wikisource's get added over a period of time. However, new editors as well as existing editors face numerous problems while working with the content online. The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge (CIS-A2K) team, to help the editors, has created this Handbook. CIS invites feedback to the first draft of this Handbook. CIS-A2K will continue to work with the Wikipedia communities to improve their efforts towards developing Wikisource.
Artificial Intelligence in the Governance Sector in India
The use of Artificial Intelligence has the potential to ameliorate several existing structural inefficiencies in the discharge of governmental functions. Our research indicates that the deployment of this technology across sub-sectors is still on the horizons.
India’s post-truth society
The proliferation of lies and manipulative content supplies an ever-willing state a pretext to step up surveillance.
Digital Native: #MemeToo
An old meme shows the need for emotional literacy in our digitally saturated age. Memes, like regrettable exes, have the habit of resurfacing at regular periods.
Essays on 'Offline' - Selected Abstracts
In response to a recent call for essays that explore various dimensions of offline lives, we received 22 abstracts. Out of these, we have selected 10 pieces to be published as part of a series titled 'Offline' on the upcoming r@w blog. Please find below the details of the selected abstracts.
Digital Native: Playing God
Google’s home assistant can make you feel deceptively God-like as it listens to every command of yours. It is a device that never sleeps, and always listens, waiting for a voice to utter “Ok Google” to jump into life.
Digital Native: Double Speak
Aadhaar’s danger has always been that it opens up individuals to high levels of vulnerability without providing safeguards.
